“Desk-mate, let me borrow your paper to check my answers against yours!”

“Lin Zhu, I want it too, wu wu…”

The two-day midterm exams had just ended. Even the poor students in the international preparatory class were thoroughly tormented, each of them sprawling on their desks with crestfallen expressions, their mouths full of groans and laments.

Out of the twenty or so students in the class, only Lin Zhu’s state was as usual—calm and relaxed, not showing the slightest bit of the wretchedness that comes from cramming at the last minute.

Actually, he didn’t need to cram at the last minute anyway.

Among a group of wilted high school students, Lin Zhu’s complexion was uniquely excellent.

Even though his appearance and aura looked incredibly delinquent, a regular sleep schedule gave him an excellent complexion without a trace of dark circles. Furthermore, that expressionless, world-weary face of his inexplicably exuded a steady and composed aura.

…This was probably the ‘unmoving as a mountain’ bigshot aura described in novels, right?

Staring enviously at Lin Zhu’s handsome side profile, Huang Canran couldn’t help but sigh softly in his heart.

As he took the various subject test papers, which were basically filled with answers, from Lin Zhu’s hands, he asked curiously: “We just finished the exams, what are you reviewing again?”

Ever since Lin Zhu returned to school, he was practically refreshing the worldview of his classmates in the international preparatory class every single day—We’re all bad students, how come you’re studying so enthusiastically?

At first, everyone thought he was just putting on an act.

Until Lin Zhu’s desk-mate, Huang Canran, had nothing better to do and helped him grade the past exam papers he had finished doing in his spare time, only to find that his answers were almost identical to the standard answers at the back…

The four-eyed bad student was greatly shocked.

—Holy crap, you’re actually studying??

By now, with Huang Canran acting as his hype man, Lin Zhu had already become the publicly recognized hidden bigshot among his classmates. His new image was somewhat akin to the ‘Return of the Dragon King’.

Who knew how many novel tropes the other party had imagined in his head.

Sprawled on his desk, Huang Canran pinched the edges of the test papers with both hands, draped them over his head, and inched over like a snail to take a peek…

His expression instantly cracked.

The blond youth was not reviewing.

Spread out on his desk was a self-printed stack of text documents, bound together in an A4 folder.

Black words on white paper, densely packed.

The very top line of text was unexpectedly a title filled with academic flavor: 《An In-Depth but Accessible Discussion on the Lifelong Marking Sexual|Behavior Between Alphas and Omegas》???

Huang Canran, who was usually obsessed with reading spicy, melodramatic dog-blood novels, instantly felt utterly outclassed. He couldn’t stop whispering holy crap, but his eyes were shining as he leaned in closer.

“Desk-mate, have you and your partner already developed to this stage?”

The person who understood Lin Zhu best in the entire class was undoubtedly Huang Canran. The two were desk-mates, so close their distance didn’t exceed half a meter; any small movement couldn’t be hidden from the other.

Just like how Huang Canran couldn’t hide the act of reading novels inside his desk drawer, his desk-mate also couldn’t hide his behavior of keeping his head down playing on his phone and exchanging messages with someone.

Huang Canran came with a built-in romance radar, and with one glance, he could tell this cold-faced, cool-guy desk-mate of his was in the middle of a fantastic romance!

Under his curious questioning, Lin Zhu pursed his lips and slowly nodded in admission.

“Yeah, this is my partner.”

Lin Zhu wasn’t someone with many words.

Huang Canran had chatted with him a few times about romance-related topics, and only knew that his Omega partner was an off-campus individual, a few years older than him, with an extremely busy job.

“I’m just understanding it in advance, treating it as a science popularization.”

Actually, as long as he wasn’t in front of Yan Ruoyun, Lin Zhu didn’t easily feel embarrassed or uncomfortable. Even if his desk-mate caught him reading materials about AO marking, his reply was calm and unruffled.

“I can pretend I believe you.”

Huang Canran let out a hehe laugh, the thick lenses of his glasses unable to hide his glowing eyes. Just as he wanted to casually gossip a couple more sentences…

Lin Zhu closed the materials, put them away in his drawer, and casually asked: “Do you still want to check your answers or not? The others want to borrow it to look too.”

Hearing this, Huang Canran finally remembered the serious business. His waist immediately straightened up. “Want, want, want!”

“I have to calculate roughly how many points I scored. If my grades are too ugly and my dad docks my allowance because he thinks it’s humiliating, I’ll be miserable!”

After checking his answers, Huang Canran sprawled sideways on the desk, looking wilted. He let out a long sigh, his tone filled with a faint sorrow.

“Sigh, if only my grades were a bit better. Then I could take my report card to ask my dad for a reward, and I’d almost be able to buy that thing I’ve been craving for so long…”

His ears acutely catching the word [reward], Lin Zhu’s expression shifted, and he couldn’t resist chiming in, “Tomorrow is Saturday. My partner plans to take me out to play after finishing work.”

“We might go for a short trip to a neighboring city.”

After speaking, Lin Zhu reservedly pursed his lips.

Huang Canran: “…Fuck!”

After briefly envying, being jealous of, and hating him for a second.

Huang Canran propped up his upper body, unable to suppress his inner yearning for romance and his obsession with shipping couples. He first coughed twice to clear his throat before asking in a small voice:

“Desk-mate, let me ask you a question, you don’t have to answer, but are you guys staying overnight outside?”

…

Afterwards, he subconsciously let out a low gasp of amazement.

“Wow—”

At the same time, the eyes hidden beneath his lenses seemed to spell something out as he patted Lin Zhu’s shoulder in an encouraging manner.

“It is time to understand it in advance. I heard from my older cousins that nowadays, Omegas really pursue the quality of this aspect. Besides, your partner is older than you, so their requirements might be even higher.”

Lin Zhu: “…”

Seeing his desk-mate’s speechless expression, Huang Canran asked in shock: “You couldn’t possibly have not thought about it, right? When a couple goes out traveling and stays overnight, it’s definitely a given that something will happen, isn’t it?!”

This wasn’t just a plot point in a novel!

Actually speaking, Lin Zhu really hadn’t thought about it.

Ever since being discharged from the hospital, he and Yan Ruoyun hadn’t met again, though their online communication grew more frequent day by day.

The man was incredibly busy; when they voice chatted at night, the exhaustion in his voice couldn’t be hidden.

Therefore, the night before the exam, when he heard the other party say he would take him out to travel and relax after the exams were over, his mind was completely filled with an unspeakable longing and anticipation for going out to play.

It was only after falling in love with Yan Ruoyun that he deeply understood what the emotion of [longing] really was…

Sour, yet with a sweet aftertaste.

Regarding the trip, the two hadn’t set a detailed plan yet, intending to discuss it after Lin Zhu finished his exams.

But there was no doubt that,

They would be spending two days and one night together outside.

As for sharing a bed, it wasn’t the first time for the two of them.

During the time Yan Ruoyun was hospitalized, Lin Zhu had fallen asleep holding the man for more than just one night. The most passionate thing that happened during that time was merely helping each other out with their hands.

Furthermore, the timing of the next key plot point was vague, and the System had been as quiet as a chicken during this period, without giving him any prompts either.

So, Lin Zhu’s purpose in understanding lifelong marking in advance really wasn’t so that tomorrow or the day after he would…

—Permanently mark Yan Ruoyun.

He was staring blankly into space when he suddenly heard Huang Canran lower his volume and shout out the name currently lingering in his heart.

“Holy crap…! Holy crap, holy crap, holy crap!”

“The Yan family and the Lin family jointly issued an announcement, declaring that the two heirs have broken off their engagement! Isn’t that the two bigshots, Yan Ruoyun and Lin Xiujie!”

The headquarters for both the Yan and Lin families were in Beidu City. It was said that one mountain cannot house two tigers, but alas, these two families had a long history of cooperation, and the heirs were an engaged couple…

Both enterprises were leading local companies. Any big movement from either would spark heated discussions, let alone this kind of relationship issue that attracted even more attention.

The news broke two hours ago, and now the local hot searches had already blown up. Looking at the level of discussion, the heat online was probably going to spread rapidly.

At that time, Lin Zhu was still taking his afternoon subject exams.

He quickly pulled his phone out of his desk drawer. After unlocking the screen, the first thing he did was click into WeChat to take a look.

He had changed the name next to the pinned avatar into a cat icon from the System’s built-in emojis.

There was no little red dot on the other party’s avatar.

Which also meant that Yan Ruoyun hadn’t sent him a single message the entire afternoon.

Their last conversation was still stuck on the sentence from noon: [I’m going to get busy, good luck on your exams], and Lin Zhu’s reply: [Okay].

Lin Zhu hurriedly opened his social media networks.

Sure enough.

The news of the Yan and Lin families breaking off the engagement had already shot up the hot search rankings.

After all, both families had businesses involved in the entertainment industry and inherently received outside attention. Moreover, both heirs possessed outstanding looks, not to mention that Yan Ruoyun’s identity as an Omega inherently brought discussion heat…

Staring at this continuously rising hot search, Lin Zhu’s expression went slightly blank. For a moment, his throat felt tight, so dry that he couldn’t stop swallowing.

Right at this moment.

His phone vibrated.

The second he saw the message box pop up, Lin Zhu’s breath violently hitched.